I didn’t want to look up the last time the Mets won a laugher, because I knew the answer would be startling at first and then depressing. (It was May 15, when they beat the Blue Jays by 10.) Kind of like this season has been.

“Dinner’s waiting, hon’.”
“One minute. Game’s almost over.”
“Is that still on? Haven’t they lost already?”
“Hey, have some faith here. Wheeler pitched great, even Robles pitched well and, besides, they won last night.”
“Yes, dear, but the kids and I hate to see you disappointed on Father’s Day.”

You no longer tune in guaranteed to see a valiant starting pitcher labor in futility with zero run support, waiting for the one slip-up that will prove fatal. Oh, that possibility’s still front and center, but the Mets have expanded their repertoire. You might also get an acceptable, […]

When the Mets are mired deep in one of their patented extended funks, I tend to be asked — given that I’ve been around and remember things — some variation on the question, “Has it ever been this bad before?” The fact that the Mets have patented […]

On Wednesday I drove up to Massachusetts in a rented Nissan Pathfinder. (Nice vehicle, BTW.) On Thursday I helped my kid clean out his dorm room, a task that would have been more efficiently accomplished with a fire hose and/or flamethrower, and transported the to-be-salvaged/reused stuff to summer storage […]

Seth Lugo going four innings and giving up no runs as a starter after two months doing nothing but relieving was inspirational. Brandon Nimmo homering fair directly after homering foul was inspirational. Scott Copeland — with Tim Peterson one half of the Who? Brothers Show Band and Revue — acquitted himself nicely from out […]

Teams in freefall have a certain stink to them — a weird funk of despair and anger, disbelief and anxiety. The relievers will self-destruct, the bats will fail, the defense will falter, the umps and/or fate will intervene. Players and fans alike carry themselves as if they know it and are just waiting for the […]